Paintings During Mughals
Features
- The Mughal pictures were small in size and hence are known as miniature paintings.
- It was mostly courtly and aristocratic.
- A keen appreciation of nature was another characteristic of the Mughal school.
- Remarkable excellence was achieved by the Mughal school in portrait painting.
- The excellence of the Mughal artists in colour composition,
Development of Mughal Paintings
Humayun – Paintings During Mughals
During his stay at the court of the Persian ruler, at Tabriz he met two young painters, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd-al-Samad (or Abdus Samad), to whom he gave hope of future employment in case he regained his kingdom. Later on, the two joined him in Kabul and Abdus Samad gave drawing lessons to little Akbar. Akbar: Though illiterate, Akbar had a great thirst for knowledge and commissioned the illustrations of several literary and religious texts. He called a great number of artists to his court and became the real founder of the Mughal school of painting. Akbar gave employment to many artists.
A hundred and fifty or so are known since the illustrations in the manuscripts produced during Akbar’s reign bear the names of the artists. The chief painters were Mir Sayyid Ali, Abd-al-Samad (already in the service of Humayun) and Baswan, a Hindu. Akbar is supposed to have maintained a studio exclusively for painting. Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd-al-Samad drilled the craftsmen in all the technical details of Persian miniatures. Many Indians such as Baswan and Daswant attained great positions as court artists.
In 1580, Akbar received in his court the first group of Jesuit priests who presented him with a copy of the Polyglot Bible illustrated with Flemish engravings. The emperor ordered his painters to copy them. Soon other European paintings were brought to his court and studied with interest. After 1595, Mughal paintings reveal the assimilation of Western techniques.
Akbar’s liberal patronage to the Hindus and Muslims gradually resulted in an excellent blending of the Persian and local styles, which was at its best under Jahangir. Jahangir himself was a connoisseur of art and under his lavish patronage, the painting reached its zenith. The paintings of his reign were far more mature works of art. The eminent painters included Abul Hasan (Nadr-uzZaman) Aga Raza, Mansur (Nadr-ul-Asar), Muhammad Nadir, Bishan Das, Manohar and Govardhan.
During this period, European influence manifested itself more and more. The custom of copying European paintings and engravings continued. Jahangir preferred group portraits as well as court scenes and different episodes of his life. An excellent example is the ‘Emperor Jahangir celebrating the festival of Gulab-Pashi’, a Persian festival.
A new type of painting, born of the emperor’s great love of nature, produced the most delightful pictures of his time, namely the animal and flower paintings. His painters used to accompany him on his outings and often the emperor asked them to paint the lovely blossoms, plants, birds and animals he noticed. They form the illustrations in the emperor’s memoirs, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, which record many episodes from his daily life. In the field of portraiture, Jahangir’s reign achieved perfection, depicting the full-length subjects, either in profile or three-quarter view.
Shah Jahan – Paintings During Mughals
Though interested mainly in architecture, he continued to patronise painting. The high quality of craftsmanship continued, but the inner vitality started to disappear. Kalyan Das, Anup Chitr and Raj Anup were prominent painters in his court. But a more vigorous patron was Shahjahan’s šon Dara Shikoh who had an album of paintings, mainly bird and vegetal, with strong European influences.
Aurangazeb -Paintings During Mughals
He did not patronise any arts and painting lost royal patronage but perhaps during his waning years, he may have consented to have his portraits painted, for there are surviving examples where he is shown either as a bearded old man hunting or holding a copy of the Quran in his hand.